Knowledge
Management - Learning From Lessons - Ten Steps

Knowledge Management - Lessons Learned and How To Identify Them

Many organisations
use the term "lessons learned" to describe
the way in which they avoid repeating mistakes, or ensure that they build
on past successes, yet a lesson can only be applied if it has been successfully
identified, and captured first.

Even in "learning organisations" who
profess to be good at knowledge management and knowledge sharing, the
process for identifying lessons learned can lacks rigour or depth.

All
too often, lessons end up as "motherhood and apple pie" statements,
and end up in reports on shelves gathering dust (or its electronic equivalent).

1 Call the meeting. Hold a face-to-face meeting as soon as you can after
the project ends, within weeks rather than months.

2 Invite the right
people. The project leader needs to attend, as do key members of the
project team. If a similar project is already underway,
then there is great value in the new project team attending - a "customer" for
the knowledge

3 Appoint a facilitator. Identify a facilitator who was not closely
involved in the project. The facilitator should be someone who can ask
questions from an independent, but non-threatening standpoint. This isn't
an audit, it's an investment!

4 Revisit the objectives
and deliverables of the project. Ask "what
did we set out to do?" and "what did we achieve?"

5 Go through the project step by step. Revisit the project plan and
identify any deviation from plan. Where were the delays, and what went
ahead of schedule? What changed and why?

6 Ask
"what went well?" Ask "what were the successful steps towards
achieving your objective?" and "what went really well in the
project?"

Ask a "why?" question
several times. This is vital, and will get you to the root of the reason.
Don't take the initial response at
face value. Often people don't even realise what the underlying reason
behind a success or failure is. Your role may involve guiding them on
a voyage of discovery (without regressing them to their childhood!).

7 Find out why these
aspects went well, and express the learning as advice or guidelines
for the future. This is a key point. Try to avoid
expressing lessons learned in a passive, past tense, such as: "Project
Foxtrot completed ahead of schedule because the project team remained
in-tact throughout the design and execution stages".

The lesson
will be far more accessible to others if it is expressed as:

"On
time-critical projects, ensure that the project team remains consistent
throughout the design and execution stages of the project. This will
eliminate any learning-curve issues due to the take-on of new staff".

As the
facilitator, acknowledge feelings and press for the facts. Ask "what
repeatable, successful processes did we use?? and ?how could we ensure
future projects go just as well, or even better?"

8 Ask "what
could have gone better?" Ask "what were the aspects that
stopped you delivering even more?" Identify the stumbling blocks
and pitfalls, so they can be avoided in future by asking "what
would your advice be to future project teams, based on your experiences
here?"

9 Ensure
that participants leave with their feelings acknowledged. Ask for "Marks
out of ten" and "What would make it a ten for you?" to
access residual issues.

10 Record
the meeting. Use quotes to express the depth of feeling. Express
the recommendations as clearly, measurably and unambiguously as possible,
using the guideline format explained in point 7. Take a photograph
of the project team, and ensure that you record contact information
(e-mail and telephone) to make follow-up conversations easy for anyone
reading he lessons learned. Ensure that you circulate the write-up
around the participants for comment, and permission to use specific
quotes before sharing more widely.

Conclusion

Identifying
and recording lessons learned is fairly straightforward process,
given the simple set of steps above and a measure of facilitation
skills. Of course, identifying the lessons is only part of a knowledge
management cycle; lessons learned, and the guidelines that they spawn,
have no intrinsic value. The benefits come from ensuring that the
lessons are actually applied - which is another story!

Chris
Collison is a renowned expert in knowledge management and an
experienced practitioner in the leadership and implementation of
organisational change from a people perspective.

As a best-selling
author, he has presented to audiences at business schools and at
conferences around the world, and is a regular contributor to specialist
knowledge management publications. Chris has worked with leaders
at the highest levels of many public and private-sector organizations,
sharing the practical experiences he gained whilst working in BP's
knowledge management team, and his deep understanding of the human
dynamics of major change programmes.